Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.

Abstract: Presented herein is a video enhancer plug-in for a web browser that may either interface directly with the browser or indirectly as a plug-in for another more general multimedia browser plug-in. The video enhancer consists primarily of video enhanced scripts and a library of specialized routines. A script is intended to provide a visually interesting display within a web browser environment and calls upon routines in the library to do so. These routines, for example, may take live video input from a video camera and perform specific functions such as locating the head of an individual within the camera's field of view. Because the script runs within a web browser, it allows components of the system to be widely separated from one another, so long as they are connected across a wide area network such as the Internet.

Abstract: An interactive karaoke system includes a microphone developing an audio input from at least one karaoke performer; a camera producing a series of video frames including the at least one karaoke performer; and a karaoke processor system including a video environment and a related audio environment for the karaoke performer. The karaoke processor system is coupled to the camera to create extracted images of the at least one karaoke performer from the series of video frames and to composite the extracted images with a background derived from the video environment. The video environment is affected by at least one of a position and a movement of the at least one karaoke performer. A karaoke network includes a local area network, a local karaoke server coupled to the local area network and storing local karaoke content; and a number of karaoke systems coupled to the local area network, each of which can request karaoke content from the local karaoke server.

Abstract: Disclosed is an inventive method for providing visual chat. A character image is read into memory representing a character a user wishes to be for the duration of the visual chat. Continuous frames of video images are then received, typically using video camera, which include image data of a person. The head image of the person is then tracked by the system, and portions of the head image are extracted from the video images. These extracted portions are preferably features of the person in the video image. Finally, the extracted portions of the head image are blended into corresponding areas of the character image, such that the features of the blended character image match the features of the person, and change as the features of the person change.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for providing a gesture recognition system for recognizing gestures made by a moving subject within an image and performing an operation based on the semantic meaning of the gesture. A subject, such as a human being, enters the viewing field of a camera connected to a computer and performs a gesture, such as flapping of the arms. The gesture is then examined by the system one image frame at a time. Positional data is derived from the input frames and compared to data representing gestures already known to the system. The comparisons are done in real-time and the system can be trained to better recognize known gestures or to recognize new gestures. A frame of the input image containing the subject is obtained after a background image model has been created. An input frame is used to derive a frame data set that contains particular coordinates of the subject at a given moment in time.